What’s in a Name?

Authenticity. Everyone wants a claim to it. We all want to be unique, different; or at least be merited with inventing something that is. When you really think about it, every aspect of our lives incorporates creativity, from the everyday objects we use at home, to the principles and ideologies we apply to our home and work ethics – someone thought of it, shared it, and asserted the rights to its invention.

Acknowledgement lies at the core of the strive towards authenticity. From a business perspective, if your company does a great job, you would want the target market to know it to better the chances of them employing your services. Let’s face it, you wouldn’t want to share your name and face with anyone, so why risk doing so with your business? Fortunately, there are a number of ways to protect the name and design of your venture or product.

Logo Lingo

Logos form the symbolic ‘face’ of a company or invention. According to the UKIPO, protection for your logo can be achieved by registering a trade mark and may also be protected under copyright law (for original works) as an artistic work. Further, the logo may include creative words or letter formations which enhance the idea of what is being symbolised. A copyrighted logo provides a preventative measure from others copying your design (for example for advertising of their goods).

According to the USPTO, a trade mark (TM) may be defined as “…any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods…”. Other means of protection include:

1)      service marks (SM) – identify the service source;

2)      collective marks – TMs or SMs used by a group or organisation and

3)      certification marks – used by a third party to verify quality or other traits of the commodities involved.

Take a look at the interesting logos below and see if you can spot the symbolism – certainly worth protecting!

(Designed by Peter Vasvari)

(Designed by Jens Wickelgren)

(Designed by Sean Heisler)

(Designed by logomotive)

(Designed by The Action Designer)

Protect Your Package

A common practice in the cut throat marketing world is for lesser known products to mimic well known brands. They do this with the hopes of increasing sales by fooling buyers into believing they are purchasing the same quality product – in other words, they ride on the success of your authentic brand.

Packaging plays a large part in communicating with target markets and thus needs equal attention to protection. So just how can you make sure that your package is yours and yours alone? In the UK, conditions were introduced into the Trade Marks Act which bans the use of branding which, without grounds, takes unfair advantage of the unique features or characteristics and reputation of recognised registered trade marks. After all, “If it doesn’t say Kellogg’s on the box, then it’s not Kellogg’s in the box!”

So, while names are important, they don’t cover everything. The whole package (logo included) should be considered for full protection of your brand identity.

Got any interesting packaging ideas? Compare them to some of these innovative ones.

(By Yanko Design)

(Gloji’s tag line is the juice that makes you glow By Gloji Inc. Copyright © 2010)

(Designed by BBDO, Germany for Medicom Pharma)

(Designed by Kempertrautmann, Munich for Gortz 17)

Be inspired – happy creating!

By Ghabiba Weston

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